MAY 7, 2017

Boone Windsore had left them.

Zoey All was eleven, and her father had gone away three years ago. One day, he would be back in her life, though.

She held her mother's hand as they moved through a gray hall. They couldn't see each other or themselves. Zoey's mother wore an invisibility bracelet. Theo Majestic didn't have to use one to avoid being seen by his enemies, and turning invisible wasn't the only thing he could do.

Piles of Freeman belongings littered the hangar Zoey and her mother had left. They had moved out that massive room, but they hadn't left this Freeman space station. Maybe they would meet the people who had killed the Freemans in the hangar.

Zoey and her mother had spotted a Soynite spaceship in the hangar. It was smaller than theirs, which remained parked in that room. Before Soy's invasion, a man had owned the largest Soynite spaceship. Zoey had never learned if he had survived the attack many good people had died in.

"Let's move around that pile, Zoey," her mother said.

A pile of Freeman belongings sat in the hall. They moved around it. With her free hand, Zoey rubbed her cheek. Earlier, she had mentioned Boris Endman. That had made her mother slap her. Minutes after that, she had kissed Zoey's cheek while it was still sore. Then she had used a Soynite healing glass to get rid of Zoey's pain. Her mother had apologized for hurting her. Still, Zoey knew she had earned that pain.

Her sister had earned authority over Soy and almost all its people.

When High Lovely's father married Zoey's mother, the girls had become stepsisters. While Freemans attacked Soy, Lovely had left Boone. When Zoey was eight, he had left her. But they would be in a room with each other again. One day.

Zoey wore a blue backpack, a white shirt, gray sweatpants, and white shoes. Her shirt had short sleeves, and the front of it showed Theo Majestic's head. Her father had seen him in person. Not knowing what it was like to see Theo with her own eyes, Zoey had left her home planet.

Someday, she would meet him. She would look at Theo, the High system's creator, Soy's former king.

Before the planet's invasion, Theo's wife, Lilly, had gone periods of time without being seen by the Soynite public. She might have hidden multiple pregnancies from her people. If she and Theo had children, Zoey would have to treat a threat to any of them like a threat to herself.

"Zoey," her mother said.

"Yes, Mother?" Zoey replied.

"I'm still sorry for slapping you, but I had to do it. It was necessary. You know that, right?"

Zoey knew her mother had done what she had needed to do. "I know. I love you, Mother."

"And I love you, Zoey," her mother said.

Like her invisibility bracelet, her shirt, pants, and shoes were black. She wore her Soynite pendant, which was as invisible as everything else she donned. Zoey didn't have a pendant. Neither did she have her birth father. She had her mother, though.

Before Soy's invasion, together, Zoey and Misty Windsore had spent more time traveling through outer space in their spaceship than living on Soy. The Freemans had attacked it while Zoey and her mother visited their home on the planet. Even before the Invasion, Zoey's main residence had been her spaceship.

She saw a sentence on the wall ahead. Someone had used red paint to make it, forming Soynite text.

Planet Still isn't good.

Seeing those Soynite words in this Freeman place was comforting, like Zoey's spaceship must have been to her father when he had boarded it for the first time.

"Look at what someone painted on that wall," Zoey told her mother.

"I see it," she replied. "We aren't the only Soynites here. The dead Freemans are proof of that, and so is the writing on that wall over there. You might make some new friends today, baby."

Zoey smiled.

Footsteps came, urgent, their owner moving fast. It sounded like a huge person ran. Zoey turned. A Freeman rushed toward her, holding a dagger. He couldn't see her or her mother as he ran. Zoey's mother tugged, forcing her closer to a wall.

Someone yelled in a nearby hall. The running Freeman moved past Zoey and her mother, then rushed into the hall where the yell had come from.

"Let's follow him," Zoey's mother said.

As long as she and her mother had the invisibility bracelet helping them, the Freeman who had moved past them wouldn't see them. Zoey and her mother moved into the hall he had run into, then they stopped walking. A Soynite man sliced off the Freeman's head with a sword. The Soynite was seven feet tall. He backed away from his enemy, who, unlike him, didn't bleed.

A pile of Freeman belongings sat on the gray floor, and the headless Freeman collapsed onto the pile. His eyes blinked, then the head and the rest of his body changed into smoke. Blood remained on the floor, but it hadn't come from the big man, and it didn't turn into smoke. A Freeman he had wounded must have gotten away from him.

A door was open. If Zoey moved through it, what would she find afterward?

The big man stood in the hall, scowling.

"Hello!" Zoey's mother said. The man looked around the hall, and saw no one. "It's okay. We're just like you. I'm a Soynite, and I have an invisibility bracelet. It's why you can't see me. I'm going to take my bracelet off, then I'm going to put it in my pocket. I have to stop holding my daughter's hand, though. Don't hurt her."

Zoey's mother stopped holding her hand. Now she was visible. The man scowled at her, looking as if he believed she might try hurting him. She took a step back, then rubbed her thin arms with her hands.

"It's okay, Zoey," her mother said. She became visible. The man looked at her like he had looked at Zoey. "You're scaring my daughter. What's your name?"

Zoey's mother headed closer to the man. Zoey clung to her black shirt as they walked, using her as a Soynite shield. The man slashed the wall with his sword. Zoey and her mother stepped back. Zoey's heart pounded as if the man had wounded her with his weapon, which he still held.

"Mother, I don't like this!" she said.

She tightened her grip on her mother's black shirt, trembling.

"If you want to kill me, that's not going to happen," Zoey's mother said. "I'm good at killing. You seem to be good at it, too. But I'm better at it than you are. You're not going to kill me, and you're also not going to kill my daughter."

"Are you a Child of Still?!" the man shouted.

Zoey furrowed her brow.

"No," her mother said. "I don't even know what that is."

The man aimed his sword at Zoey's mother.

"Mother!" Zoey said.

During Soy's invasion, her father had avoided being stabbed by two strife swords. Strife hadn't been used to make the weapon the man held, but it was still a sword, and he could use it to murder a good woman today.

"Tell me more about yourself!" he told Zoey's mother. He lowered the sword.

Zoey's mother's last name used to be All, but she had married Boone Windsore. She was a High's stepmother. She could tell the big man more about herself. After that, maybe he would never want to aim his weapon at her ever again. If Theo were with Zoey and her mother, he would have been able to protect them from the man. Theo wasn't in this hall with them, though. Neither was Boone, the best father Zoey had.

"My name is Misty Windsore," her mother said, speaking to the big man. "The girl behind me is my daughter, Zoey All. She's eleven. Are you cruel enough to kill an eleven-year-old girl?"

"If that eleven-year-old girl is a Child of Still, yes," the man said.

"She isn't a Child of Still," Zoey's mother said. "She's just a kid. I don't even know what a Child of Still is. Neither does Zoey. But I do know that she is my baby, and I won't let you kill her. I won't let anyone kill her. Also, you're not going to do that to me. I don't plan on dying in this Freeman place. There's something that I have to do, and I'll get it done. Nobody is going to stop me from doing it. And I'm not a Child of Still. Really. So, you can relax."

The man looked at his sword, then shifted his attention to Zoey's mother. "I'm not going to kill you. And I'm not going to kill your daughter."

A relieved sigh came from Zoey, as if someone had told her Theo had slain Lock Tannis.

"Thank you," her mother told the big man. "What's your name? I hope you haven't forgotten that mine is Misty. Misty Windsore."

"I'm Crammer Cole," the man said. "And you and Zoey should leave."

The light touched Crammer's black hair. He was tall and muscular. Unlike Zoey's father, he had brown eyes. Her mother hadn't known Crammer until today, which meant he wasn't Zoey's biological father. He would never be the person who had impregnated her mother years ago. Zoey hadn't found her birth father yet, but she knew a Soynite could find his or her relative inside a space station.

Crammer turned, then headed away from them, moving away from Zoey and her mother.

"You need help!" her mother told him. "You have Freemans to deal with, Crammer Cole! Back when they were attacking our planet, Freemans killed Soynites who were deadlier than you. You could use my help."

Crammer kept walking.

"Let me help you!" Zoey's mother said.

Crammer headed into a different hall, not paying attention to Zoey or her mother, as if he hadn't heard her speaking to him. She had spoken to Zoey's father Boone more than once. She couldn't talk to him now. Zoey couldn't, either. Crammer wasn't Boone. He never would be. Yet he was as tall as the average Freeman man, and he had slain one of Lock's warriors. It wasn't impossible for Crammer to become friends with Zoey and her mother one day. In the future, he could help them survive encounters with Freeman enemies. But Crammer didn't seem like he wanted to befriend them.

"What are we going to do, Mother?" Zoey asked.

"We're going to follow—" her mother started saying.

Zoey heard footsteps, ones Crammer didn't make. She turned. A Freeman grabbed her, then forced her through the nearby open door. She screamed, as if doing that might kill her enemy.

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"Mother!" she cried.

The Freeman shoved Zoey against a bookshelf. She yelped. Blood dripped onto the floor, but it didn't come from her. It emerged from the spot where the Freeman's arm should have been. Crammer must have sliced it off. Zoey stood in front of the bookshelf. She removed a book from it before launching the object. It slammed against the injured Freeman's chest, then he scowled at her.

A sword entered him.

"Get away from my daughter!" Zoey's mother said. She stood behind the one-armed Freeman, wielding a red sword.

She pulled the weapon free, and stepped aside. The Freeman backed away before collapsing onto the floor. He stopped breathing. Blood left the remainder of his arm, and it left the wound Zoey's mother had given him. He would turn into smoke, something that needed to happen to Lock as soon as possible. When the Freeman on the floor died, he would stop being able to serve him.

Zoey took multiple steps away from the Freeman. Her mother used his black top to wipe his blood off the sword, then she moved to the spot beside Zoey. The Freeman's corpse became smoke, and it rose toward the ceiling.

A red sofa remained next to the bookshelf. Many Freemans had sat on the Red Throne, a chair a Soynite would sit on someday.

Zoey winced, then rubbed her back. "He pushed me against the bookshelf."

"It's going to be okay," her mother said. "Come on."

Zoey's mother grabbed her hand and they left the room, then they stopped holding hands.

Crammer stood in the hall. "Is the kid okay?"

"She needs a healing glass, but she's going to be fine," Zoey's mother said. "I killed the Freeman who hurt her, and one of his arms was missing. I assume you had something to do with that."

Crammer turned his back on Zoey's mother, and headed away from her, as if she had told him to leave her alone.

"You were going to help my daughter, Crammer," she said. "I like that. If you stay with me and Zoey, you'll be able to see her a lot more. You'll be able to see me a lot more, too."

Crammer kept walking. "You and Zoey need to leave."

Armed with the Freeman sword she had grabbed, Zoey's mother sighed. They watched Crammer exit the hall.

"I have to heal you," Zoey's mother said.

She put the Freeman sword on the floor, then pulled a healing glass from her pocket.

"Tell me where it hurts," she said.

After Zoey's mother finished using the healing glass on her, she put it back in her pocket. She picked up the Freeman sword.

"We're going to leave this place, Zoey," she said. "But we're not going to do it right now. I hope that Crammer doesn't leave this space station before we become friends with him. Your father is gone. We need a new friend. We need someone to help keep us safe, and I want that person to be Crammer."

"I hope he tells us what a Child of Still is," Zoey replied.

"I don't know what that is, but it sure has Crammer worried. He might end up telling us what a Child of Still is. I hope he does. A Child of Still obviously has something to do with planet Still."

Still was as much a planet as Soy. Useful objects could be found on Still, but Zoey had never touched an item someone had taken from that planet. Her mother's invisibility bracelet had come from Soy. Teleportation stones and healing glass squares had come from there as well.

"Maybe we will meet a Child of Still today," Zoey's mother said. She looked at her Freeman sword. "Hopefully, I won't have to use this sword against one. There are enough people who want to kill us. At least Crammer doesn't want to. Unfortunately, he doesn't want to be friends with us, but he will be. I'm sure of that. Bad things have happened to us, Zoey. And they were terrible. But good things can still come into our lives. If we befriend Crammer, it will be a good thing. And that's going to happen."

Zoey looked at the pile of Freeman belongings on the floor. "Crammer is good at killing Freemans, but he doesn't want to be friends with us. He wants us to leave him alone."

"He's going to join us, Zoey. I'm going to make him do it."

"It's going to be harder than when you convinced Father to join us," Zoey said. "Crammer has his own spaceship. He can get away from the Freemans without our help. Before Father found us, he didn't have a way to get away from them."

Zoey's mother caressed her hair, touching her. "I know you miss him, baby. I miss him, too. He wasn't with us when you were born, but he's still your father, and he loves you. He always will. Wherever he is, I hope he's okay. I also need High Lovely to be okay. She's your sister, and I want you and her to be together. Father wanted that, too. And I'm sure he still wants that to happen. You have to be with your sister one day. She deserves to see you kneeling for her."

"She will see me kneeling for her," Zoey said. "That's what I have to do. Lovely is my High, and I have to serve her and her co-rulers. I need to be there for them. Lovely is the High I want to help the most, though. Because of Father, we know that she survived the Invasion, and she was supposed to go to Earth. But we don't know if she actually made it to that planet. And even if she did make it there years ago, we don't know where she is now. There's a chance that she isn't even on Earth."

Zoey's mother nodded. "Maybe, Zoey. Still, wherever Lovely is, I'm sure that you're going to find her one day. And you don't have to be a Bloodhound to do that."

"It would be a lot easier to find Lovely if I was a Bloodhound, though."

"You're right about that," Zoey's mother said. She put a hand on Zoey's shoulder. "Also, I don't think you should meet Lovely anytime soon. We don't have her father with us. He needs to be there when we finally meet Lovely. That's the way it has to be, baby. You want to meet your sister. I know that. But you need to wait. Do you understand?"

Zoey had been separated from Lovely for her entire life. It wasn't too late for them to see each other someday, but Zoey's mother believed she and Lovely shouldn't meet anytime soon. If Zoey told her mother she disagreed with her, she might receive a slap.

"I understand, Mother," she answered.

"Good, Zoey," her mother said. "Good. It's great that you understand. You understand a lot of things, actually. And you're optimistic. I love that about you. You never lose hope. Neither do I, and neither does your father. He's gone, though, and it's just me and you living together now. Like it used to be. Soon, it's not going to be this way. When we're back in our spaceship, Crammer is going to be with us. He will be a friend of ours, Zoey."

Crammer acted as if befriending Zoey and her mother would be almost as bad as getting shot by laser beams.

"He doesn't want to be friends with us," Zoey said. "But I don't think that will be true forever."

"It won't be true forever," her mother said. She nudged the pile of Freeman belongings with her shoe. "None of the Freemans in this space station will kill Crammer. He's going to make it out of this terrible place alive, and he will be with us when that happens. Getting him on our side will make our lives better. He's tough, and he's also a good fighter. That's the type of person we need. I have to talk to him. I need to convince him to join us."

"We need to find Father, too."

"We're not going to. Wherever he is, I don't want to see him right now."

Zoey frowned. "But I want to see him. We have to find a Bloodhound, Mother. If we had a Bloodhound as a friend, they would want to help us. And they would be willing to find Father for us. And when we find him, we'll be able to find Lovely. She's my sister. She's also a High. I need to help her. The Freemans want to kill all of us, but they really want to kill the Highs. I don't want them to die."

"I know," Zoey's mother said. "But I don't want you to meet Lovely and the other Highs too soon. Each of them has a Watcher. Those Watchers can keep them safe. Right now, I would rather stay away from our leaders and their mentors. I need you to do the same, Zoey. The Highs and their Watchers are probably still alive. But you can't be with them. Not yet, anyway."

Zoey had never seen a High. She had never looked at Lovely, a girl she had never met, her sister. And her mother acted like their spaceship would explode if Zoey met Lovely or any of her co-rulers too soon. She bowed her head.

"It's okay," her mother said. "You're still going to see Lovely and the other Highs one day."

Zoey looked at the pile of the Freeman belongings. "I really want to. And I hope they don't get killed by Freemans."

"They won't."

One High had been born as Don Ascend's daughter. He had replaced Reed Pisces as a High after his exile. Zoey's father had forgotten Don's daughter's name, but she would never forget the name her father and Lauren Windsore had given her sister.

Lovely.

Her Watcher, Marina Tome, was the only woman who had escaped Soy with the Highs. Zoey couldn't protect her, but maybe Marina could. She would rather defend Lovely than let one of Lock's warriors kill her.

Zoey couldn't remember her Watcher. Like she couldn't remember her birth.

"Lovely and the other Highs are going to survive every encounter they have with the Freemans," Zoey's mother said. "Me and you want the same thing, Zoey. We want all of the Highs to be okay. We don't want them to end up like Lauren. I wish you could see Lovely and her co-rulers right now. I really do. But that can't happen anytime soon. You need to stay away from the Highs. You have to stay away from your father, too. We both have to."

Zoey fought the urge to frown. "Okay, Mother."

"That's a good girl."

Zoey's mother pressed her lips against her forehead, kissing it. Her father used to do that. He used to kiss Lovely's forehead as well. Maybe he could show her affection right now. Or maybe he couldn't. Either way, Zoey didn't doubt he loved her and Lovely. She believed that as much as she believed she had deserved that slap earlier.

Noise came from the nearby hall, and it sounded like metal clashing against metal. Crammer yelled.

"Come on, Zoey!" Zoey's mother said.

She had used a sword to slay the Freeman who had hurt Zoey, the only unarmed person in the hall.

"I need a weapon," she told her mother.

Zoey bent down near the pile of Freeman belongings, and pulled a red throwing knife from its sheath. Her mother had taught her how to fight. Today, she could kill a Freeman.

"Okay," Zoey said. "I'm ready."

She and her mother went into the hall where the noises had come from. Crammer thrusted his sword into a Freeman's chest, then pulled the weapon free. The Freeman swung his sword. Crammer dodged it, letting it cut through empty space. The wounded Freeman collapsed onto the floor, as if doing that might guarantee Lock Tannis would live for another year.

Another Freeman moved through an open door, wielding a sword. Zoey's mother confronted him. She swung her weapon. Her sword made contact with the Freeman's neck before taking off his head. He dropped onto the floor.

Zoey, her mother, and Crammer put distance between themselves and the lifeless Freemans. They stood near each other as Lock's dead warriors changed into smoke. Freemans had destroyed planet Soy in a few hours, but they could still bleed. They could die.

Zoey heard footsteps.

She turned. A Freeman warrior rushed toward her, armed with a sword. She hurled her throwing knife. It slipped into the Freeman's forehead, then cut into his brain. He staggered, fell onto his back, and stopped breathing. His corpse became smoke.

Zoey had killed a Freeman. Thanks to her, he would never again be able to hurt or kill a Soynite.

"Good job, Zoey!" her mother cheered.

Zoey grinned. "Thanks, Mother."

"She did do a good job," Crammer said. "I can't deny that."

Zoey's mother faced him.

"Crammer," she said. "I'm glad you know that some people need to be killed in order to bring peace. That's the way it is. I understand that, and I also understand you."

Crammer glared at Zoey's mother. "No, you don't. So don't act like you do."

"But I do understand you. I also understand that you know what a Child of Still. And one of them has made you upset. Obviously, there's not just one Child of Still. There's a group of them. If there was just one Child of Still, you would've asked me if I was the Child of Still. You didn't do that, though. You asked me if I was a Child of Still. There is more than one of them. I'm right, aren't I? Of course I am. Who are the people you're so worried about, Crammer? What did they do to you?"

Crammer looked at his sword. "If you stay here, you will see a dead body. And it won't be a Freeman's."

"What do you mean by that?" Zoey's mother asked.

"I'm not going to tell you."

Zoey's mother sighed. "Okay. There are some things I can tell you about myself. Would you like that?"

Crammer didn't nod his head, but he didn't shake it, either. Like Zoey and her mother, he stood in the gray hall. He held a weapon a Freeman had owned. None of his pale enemies had managed to kill him. And he had the opportunity to learn more about Zoey's mother, who acted as if befriending Crammer might revive Soy.

"I'm a married woman, and my husband is the father of a High," Zoey's mother said. "His name is Boone Windsore. And his daughter is a girl named Lovely. Back when the Invasion was still happening, Boone saw Theo Majestic turn Lovely and five other children into Highs. One of them is Don Ascend's daughter."

Crammer stepped closer to Zoey's mother. "Is she still alive?"

"I don't know," Zoey's mother replied. "I've never met her. I also haven't met Lovely. Neither has Zoey. But if you join us, me and her will have a higher chance of meeting that High. I want to meet my stepdaughter. And I want Zoey to meet her. We don't want to die not knowing what it's like to meet Lovely."

"You want me to help you and Zoey survive."

Zoey's mother nodded. "Yes."

"Look for someone else to help the two of you," Crammer said. "You should really do that, Misty, because I'm not going to leave this place with you."

Zoey scanned the area, but no Freeman warrior moved into the hall. Her mother hadn't lost the invisibility bracelet. If they saw Freemans later, they could use the bracelet to sneak past them. Their spaceship should still be in the space station's hangar. With or without Crammer, the two of them would leave this Freeman place. They would find Zoey's father, Lovely, and Marina.

"You can't fight fate," Zoey's mother told Crammer. "Maybe it's my destiny to become friends with you."

Crammer scoffed. "Maybe it isn't. Maybe you should leave instead of continuing to bother me. Get out of here, Misty. I want you and your daughter to leave."

"Unfortunately for you, we don't plan on leaving this space station without you. I think that you should join me and Zoey, Crammer. Soy is gone. Our leaders probably aren't together. And there are a lot less Soynites than there used to be. But there are so many Freemans. So many. If you refuse to join me and my baby, you might never see another Soynite again. But you will definitely see more Freemans."

"I can deal with them," Crammer said. "The dead ones in the hangar found out how good I am at killing Freemans. You think I need you, Misty, but the truth is that I don't. You can help me by leaving me alone."

Other space stations might have Soynites inside them. Zoey and her mother had found Crammer in one Freemans had built, but they might leave it without him.

Zoey's father had left. She didn't know when she would see him again, like she didn't know when she would hug Lovely for the first time. Together, Zoey and her mother had gone into this Freeman space station, but they hadn't reunited with Zoey's father here. Instead of finding him today, they had met Crammer Cole, who acted like Zoey and her mother would bring Freeman enemies into the space station just by being there.

Zoey's mother and Crammer stood across from each other in the hall, holding Freeman swords. He didn't try murdering her. Yet he didn't consider her to be his friend.

"If you want a friend, go find one someplace else," he said.

Zoey's mother shook her head.

"This is the place where I want to make a new friend," she said.